Character development is one of the trickiest thing for even talented writers to get the hang of. The difference between knowing a character yourself, in your head, and conveying who that character is on the page, can be significant; a character whose motivations and decisions make perfect sense to you as you’re writing can come across as bland or generic in writing. The truth is that most writers could stand to improve in this department, in one way or another. And while some of this comes down to the development of talent and general experience, we’d venture to say some of it can also be learned through character observation.
The idea is that when you observe a character – a person in the real world – you are coming to know that person externally rather than in your own head. If you’re able to do this and then write about or describe the person thereafter, you’re essentially practicing character development. You’re conveying how a the character comes across in the world – not writing from the perspective of your own undefined imagination.
Naturally you can start this process quite literally by watching people, perhaps at an outdoor restaurant or passing by in a shopping mall. But we have a few specific ideas as to how and where to put yourself in a position to really study characters.
1 – Work As A Bartender
This is quite the commitment to make, but if you really want to become better at reading and understanding people, there are few occupations that can match bartending. In fact, you can look at a list of celebrities who once tended bar for confirmation of this job’s effectiveness – because they’re not just people who wound up becoming famous, but people who are known for being personable and in some cases effective at drawing stories and personality out of others. Ellen DeGeneres is perhaps the best example, but various actors (Jon Hamm, Sandra Bullock, and Bruce Willis to name a few) have also been pointed to, as has the comedian and former TV host Jon Stewart. Bill Simmons, a sportswriter and leading podcaster whose reputation was built largely on his ability to understand athletes (and more recently interview them and other celebrities) also frequently discusses his past as a bartender. It’s simply one of the best ways to get good at people, so to speak.
2 – Drive A Ride Sharing Vehicle
You never know when you might get a good story out of a ride if you spend some time driving for a company like Uber or Lyft. This doesn’t need to be a full-time job, but rather can be something you do on weekends or evenings when you’re free. And because you’re likely to have a new, total stranger in your car every 30 minutes or so, you’ll be exposing yourself to conversations with more people than you’re used to. Getting good stories out of this is one thing (and it will happen), but the real benefit is that you might start to get a better or more complete feel for people more quickly. A running lineup of strangers put in place for one-on-one conversations is effectively practice for character understanding (and by extension, building).
3 – Take Up Poker
The nature of poker has actually changed a lot over the years. From back rooms, it went to televised tournaments; from televised tournaments, it migrated online; online, poker sites quickly became part of a much larger casino gaming culture. Now, there are poker sites in the UK, pokie arcade platforms in New Zealand, digital table games in Canada, and so on and so forth. Essentially, poker is part of a worldwide internet gaming industry. However, if you find a way to play the game in something closer to its purer form, in person with live competitors, you may just find that you quickly become better at reading and understanding people. That isn’t to say your goal in writing a character is to figure out his or her secret. But any experienced poker player will tell you that you can learn a lot more about people than just when they’re bluffing or what their “tells” might be. It’s a game that fairly directly teaches you to be a keener human observer.
4 – Join A Class
This is a broad concept and can be taken many ways. Perhaps most prominently there are a lot of classes for adults online, or even through certain apps, that can teach new skills, forgotten knowledge, and anything in between. Some of these classes are even mean to help in one’s pursuit of a degree of one kind or another. These classes can be the most convenient and in some cases the most productive. But for purposes of character study, we’d recommend joining an in-person class – whether it be a university lecture course you can sit in on, or a cooking class at a local kitchen appliance store. Classes put you in crowds in a way you don’t always notice or appreciate consciously, but if you get into it with an eye toward improving your character-related skills, you may find that there are endless opportunities to observe people.
I’m a people-watcher and always have been. Body language can you tell you a lot about a person.
How do you build character development in your writing?